Methods, systems and computer program products for providing targeted messages for pharmacy interactive voice response (ivr) systems

This application is a continuation application of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/672,556 filed Sep. 25, 2003, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

This invention relates to Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, and more specifically to IVR systems that are used in pharmacies.

IVR systems are widely used to disseminate and provide information to telephone callers through automated sequences of voice prompts and menu options. IVR systems can allow callers to perform various transactions without the need for direct assistance from a customer service representative or associate. IVR systems are well known to those having skill in the art and need not be described further herein. IVR systems also may be referred to in the art as Voice Response Units (VRU) and/or other designations, which are encompassed herein by the term IVR.

One widely used application of IVR systems is in a pharmacy. These systems, also referred to herein as pharmacy IVR systems. may be used in a standalone pharmacy and/or a pharmacy department of a larger establishment. A pharmacy IVR system can allow callers to access the pharmacy services by telephone when the pharmacy is open and/or when the pharmacy is closed. The pharmacy IVR system can automatically handle telephone calls into the pharmacy. Pharmacy customers and doctors may thereby benefit, because they can enter pharmaceutical prescription refills into the IVR system at their convenience, during and/or outside of business hours and without the need to wait on hold.

As is well known to those having skill in the art, a pharmacy IVR system can operate on a standalone computer, can be installed on the same computer that runs a pharmacy dispensing and/or management system and/or can be installed on a computer that provides other general functions. The pharmacy IVR system can automatically answer telephone calls to the pharmacy and can integrate with the pharmacy dispensing system database. A pharmacy IVR system can accept prescription refill requests from customers, accept messages from customers, update the pharmacy dispensing system with valid customer refill requests, record voice messages from doctors for new prescriptions and refill authorizations, record general messages from doctors, announce pharmacy hours to callers, transfer calls to a pharmacist, automatically transmit messages to doctors for refill authorization, allow callers to check on the status of their prescription refill request(s) and/or perform other functions.

Some embodiments of the present invention operate a pharmacy Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system in response to a telephone call by a caller to the pharmacy IVR system, by identifying a targeted message for playing to the caller, using predefined criteria that are based on an identification of a pharmaceutical prescription by the caller. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention can allow an IVR system to deliver targeted messages to callers based on predefined criteria that are based on an identification of a pharmaceutical prescription by the caller. The functionality of a conventional IVR system can be enhanced to provide targeted educational (including promotional) messages concerning the pharmaceutical prescription, targeted messages that indicate alternative medications that may be substituted for the pharmaceutical prescription, targeted messages that identify other items such as medications or supplies that may be desired, targeted messages that solicit participation in a study related to the pharmaceutical prescription and/or other targeted messages, based on the specific pharmaceutical prescription that is identified by the caller and is being used by the caller or a party related to the caller for whom the caller has called.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a pharmacy IVR system answers a telephone call from a caller and accepts identification of a pharmaceutical prescription (e.g., prescription number) from a caller. At least one database is queried using predefined criteria based on the identification of a pharmaceutical prescription, to identify a targeted message. The targeted message is played to the caller. In some embodiments, after playing the targeted message, a refill call flow for the pharmaceutical prescription is executed (i.e., a refill call flow is begun or continued). In other embodiments, a series of targeted messages may be provided. In still other embodiments, a caller response to the targeted message is received and, in still other embodiments, the caller response and/or other events are logged. In still further embodiments, the pharmacy is instructed to perform an action in response to the caller response to the targeted message(s).

In some embodiments, the querying is performed by querying at least one pharmacy dispensing system database using the identification of the pharmaceutical prescription to identify the predetermined criteria. At least one message database is then queried using the predetermined criteria to identify a targeted message(s).

In some embodiments of the present invention, the predefined criteria based on the identification of a pharmaceutical prescription include age of a patient, a gender of the patient, medication of the pharmaceutical prescription, last fill date of the pharmaceutical prescription, days supply on last fill of the pharmaceutical prescription, original fill date of the pharmaceutical prescription, disease state of the patient, physician of the patient and/or other promotions that are in effect. In some embodiments, the predefined criteria do not include a personal identification of the patient, for privacy and/or other reasons. It will be understood that, as used herein, “patient” refers to the user of the pharmaceutical prescription, who may be the caller in some circumstances, but who also may be a parent, child, relative or friend of the caller in other circumstances.

In some embodiments, the querying is performed by querying at least one database using one or more of the above-described predefined criteria. A targeted message is identified that corresponds to the age of the patient, gender of the patient, medication of the pharmaceutical prescription, last fill date of the pharmaceutical prescription, days supply on last fill of the pharmaceutical prescription, original fill date of the pharmaceutical prescription, disease state of the patient, physician of the patient and/or other promotions in effect. If more than one targeted message satisfies the predefined criteria, the messages may be prioritized in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, at least one database is queried using the predefined criteria based on the identification of the pharmaceutical prescription, to identify an educational (informational) targeted message related to the pharmaceutical prescription. For example, at least one database is queried to determine whether days supply on last fill date exceeds a threshold and an educational targeted message may be provided that reminds the caller how to use the pharmaceutical prescription if the days supply on last fill date exceeds the threshold.

In other embodiments, if the last fill date is less than a first threshold and the days supply on last fill date exceed a second threshold, then a targeted message may be provided that indicates alternative medications that may be substituted for the pharmaceutical prescription. In still other embodiments, if the last fill date is less than a first threshold and the days supply on last fill date exceed a second threshold, then a targeted message may be provided that indicates other items, such as related medications or supplies, that may be desired by the patient. In these embodiments, the first threshold may be equal or unequal to the second threshold Finally, in still other embodiments, a determination is made as to whether the age of the patient qualifies the patient to participate in a study related to the pharmaceutical prescription, and a targeted message is provided that solicits participation of the patient in the study, if the age of the patient qualifies the caller to participate. The study can include any type of conventional study or surveys including post-market surveys and medication use surveys.

It will be understood that although the above description has focused primarily on method aspects, other embodiments of the present invention may provide pharmacy IVR systems, systems for operating a pharmacy IVR system and/or computer program products for operating a pharmacy IVR system. Moreover, other embodiments of the present invention may be employed in a non-pharmacy environment, wherein targeted messages may be provided based on an identification other than a pharmaceutical prescription, such as an employee number, a Social Security number or an insurance identification number, using predefined criteria based on the user input to identify a targeted message.

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